Write a detailed project report on the topic, Indian Secularism theory and practice.
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In our own times, secularization has acquired the status of a ‘social myth’ that contains elements of truth, namely the empirical processes that constitute it, as well as the distortions of that truth, all in the service of diverse, even mutually opposed, ideological positions. While the so-called conservatives see secularization as a threat to their conception of the good, moral life, robbing it of its ideas of sacredness and value, the secularists look upon it as an anti-religious, emancipatory, historical process. The latter consider urbanization, industrialisation and modernization as the causes and symptoms of the ‘secularizing fever’ that grips our societies today.
The term ‘secularisation‘ was found used in 1648 at the end of Thirty Years War in Europe, to refer to the transfer of Church properties to the exclusive control of the princes. Again in November 2 of 1989, after the French Revolution, Talleyrand announced to the French National Assembly that all ecclesiastical goods were at the dispersal of the nation. Later in 1851, George Jacob Holyoake coined the term ‘Secularism‘ and led a national movement of protest. The idea of secularisation was built in to the idea of progress. Secularisation, though nowhere more than a fragmenting and incomplete process, however since, retained a positive consolation. Secularisation now-a-days is generally employed to refer to in the words of Peter Berger “the process by which sections of society and culture are removed from the domination of religious institutions and symbols.”It may be held that the concept of secularism as evolved over the centuries in the west, however, took an anti – religious character.
Niyazi Berkes explains the origin of the word ‘secular‘ as ‘Saeculum’ which means originally ‘age’ or ‘generation’ but which came to mean in Christian Latin the ‘temporal world’ . The word ‘secular’ has been used with this meaning in all the major 7 protestant countries.” Nearly the same meaning of the term is incorporated in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, “Secularism is wholly unconcerned with that unknown world and its interpretation. It deals with the known world, interpreted by experience and neither offers nor forbids any opinion regarding another life.” Thusyt describes secularism as a movement intentionally ethical, negatively religious with political and philosophical antecedents.
Secularism in India is a multi-vocal word, what it means depends upon who uses the word and in what context. There is, therefore, no single or straight answer to the question as to why secularism in India has run into difficulties. We begin by Mahatma Gandhi because he is known as the spiritual father of Indian secularism. His vision was holistic with religion as its constitutive principle-as the source of value for judging the worth of all worldly goals and actions. Religion here means, above all, altruism (sevadharma), self-assurance arising from inner conviction, and the putting of one’s faith in the saving grace of God (Rama nama). Gandhian politics was inseparable from religion. Politics was sacralised by Gandhi. For Gandhi, as Bhikhu Parekh says, it was the citizen’s sense of moral responsibility for his actions that ultimately determined the character of the state. A Gandhian, according to Madan, would have to say that secularism has run into difficulties in India because the modern state is too much with us, and intrudes into areas of life where it has no business even to peep. The state is best which governs the least. A Gandhian critique of secularism in terms of ultimate values and individual responsibility is in some respects similar to Max Weber’s concern with the problem of value. What Gandhi and Weber are saying is that a secularized world is inherently unstable because it elevates to the realm of ultimate values it knows and these are instrumental values. Ashish Nandy claims that Gandhi showed us a way of rejecting modernity in favour of a non-modern way of tolerant religious living.
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